Press Release regarding the 30th Annual Meeting of the Governing Council of the Common Fund for Commodities

His Excellency Mr. Lok Bahadur Thapa delivered a statement on 6 December 2018 during the 30th Annual Meeting of the Governing Council of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) (6-7 December, 2018) in the Hague.

Referring to the Common Fund’s mandate to enhance the socioeconomic development of commodity producers and contribute to the development of society as a whole, Ambassador Thapa highlighted the importance of the CFC in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ambassador Thapa, while informing about the policies and priorities of the Government of Nepal for the development of agriculture sector and efforts to link our agro-based products to the global value chain, shed light on many problems and challenges facing agriculture sector in many countries more particularly LDCs.

Ambassador Thapa stressed upon the need to reorient the CFC’s activities and investment policy so as to help address gaps and challenges facing the countries like Nepal in the development of commodity sector. ‘Nepal wishes the CFC to increase its outreach to all countries, provide training and building capacity, share its knowledge and experience, assist the government and private sector, provide support and strengthening the value chain of agricultural goods’, said Ambassador Thapa.

He also urged the CFC and member states to increase cooperation and collaboration for the development of commodity sector through increased level of knowledge sharing, technology transfer as well as financial support.

The 30th Meeting of the Governing Council has elected Ambassador Thapa as the Vice Chair for 2019. This is the first time that Nepal is elected to this position.